We are continuing to work on updates to our Privacy Policy and GDPR Compliance. Currently, I am missing certain information. That has been requested and will be added as soon as it is available. I am not able at this time to give an exact date for completion but I agree this is an urgent priority and will update the information ASAP.

As focus increased on the possible role abusive messages on
social media played in the death of Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee,
Minister of State Kathleen Lynch said the consequences of such
personal attacks should not be underestimated.
“I am giving serious thought to bringing [qualified] people in to
speak to different groups of TDs about how best to protect
themselves from the venom out there,” she said.

Yes, on balance, and after reading about McEntee's death, I'm feeling a little guilty about an email I sent to a TD this year. Some politicians are unscrupulous crooks, and we can all name them, but they're the ones who are also relatively impervious to criticism. Others, while their actions - or the actions they support with their votes in the house - may be wrong, are generally convinced they are doing the right, or the least wrong thing, and are not motivated by class hatred or greed. That's how ideology works: by making it seem that what you are doing in its service is what you would do anyway, by making the artificial and interested appear natural and disinterested.

I would add that the clientist and deeply personal nature of Irish politics must add hugely to the stresses of the job, compared with polities where there is more distance between electorate and elected.

'What is the crime of robbing a bank compared with the crime of founding one?'

Having read "The Lost Revolution" and the culture of bullying and often violent intimidation in the WP of which she was a member she shd be asked whether she knew of these activities and if so what she did about them. Given venom of WP / Labour towards everyone else when they were in opposption I dont think any of them are suitable to lead on this issue

Absolute rubbish. Politicians who--
1 pay themselves multiples of what normal people earn
2 milk their expenses on top
3 protect vested interests at the expense of wider society
and then force us to tighten our belts (whether we have one or not)
deserve all the criticism they get.
It suits them to call it "abuse" as they get to play victim
I am sure people would not abuse them if they lived in the same world and on similar money as the people they pretend to represent.
They live in a self -created ivory tower and have nobody to blame but themselves.
In particular i would single out for blame all the greasy pole climbing line-towing grey suit wearing members of ff,fg,lab who seem unable to formulate an independant thought between them and whose main ambition seems to be to "do an enda", i.e. keep the head down and eventually get the big job through a process of elimination. Bunch of B's, the lot of them. Their antics have and continue to ruin this country.

This female labour minister of state is behaving in true left wing paranoid style in the face of trenchant criticism of the cruel & penal budgetary/taxation policies
pursued by her govt.

Out of touch left wing ideologues like herself cannot abide free and open criticism of either their evil doctrines or the effects of same which have resulted in human devastation, unemployment and suicide in Ireland.

Now she is obviously prepared to squander yet more taxpayers money in hiring professional counsellors to insulate herself and her fellow tenderfoots from the deserved criticism of a free media.

Persons like Minister Lynch cannot actually be trusted since what she is really on about is getting in the thin end of the wedge to stifle open public comment.

Repeal the thirty-fourth amendment of the Irish constitution :
Children have a basic right to be reared by a mother and a father.

Politicians know, or should know, full well the nature of the gold fish bowl world they inhabit. Theirs is a unique type of job that can have huge implications on the lives of citizens and it is only proper and correct that their performance, within the position they occupy, is subject to scrutiny and criticism.

Personal abuse should not enter the equation though. Personally I will criticize politicians and their decisions until the cows come home but personal abuse serves no useful purpose and should have no place in this site or any other!

Although I agree that people should have access to support, I believe, that as a whole we are aware of how social media can impact on our lives (as adults), and as a result we are aware how to switch off from it as necessary. (dis-able face-book pages etc.). I think that to attribute this to social media alone, and not general media and personal correspondence is at fault here. I sincerely appollogise if I am wrong here, and I am always saddened by any death especially by suicide, but I feel that their are some individuals jumping on this bandwagon and using it as a propoganda tool. Social media has been around for a long time, and can be very callous, as are a lot of media sources, but to sensationalise its presummed association with the death of a public figure is jevenille. (excuse spelling mistakes).